Copyright Registration and Library of Congress Mandatory Deposit Requirements

To register your copyright, the easiest, least expensive, and fastest approach is to use the Copyright Office's electronic copyright system at https://copyright.gov/registration/ You'll need to pay the Library of Congress electronic registration fee ($45-65). There is an alternative approach available, completing a simple one-page form Short Form TX and mailing it in with a $125 fee. This form is available for download from the same link, www.copyright.gov

Copyright Registration

You own the copyright to your work the moment you create it. You do not need to publish it, include special "magic" captions in your book, or register your copyright. However, there are definite advantages in terms of enforcing your copyright if you do include a notice in your book and do register your copyright.

The traditional way to give notice that your book is copyrighted is to include a caption on the copyright page, on the back of the title page of your book. The notice should at least say

You may also want to include a whole paragraph of things that are not allowed, such as copying, making into a movie, distributing in electronic form, etc. Here are some examples:

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please refer all pertinent questions to the publisher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system - except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper - without permission in writing from the publisher.

If you register your copyrighted material with the Copyright Office, then you are giving official public notice of your ownership. This is needed if you want to take action to enforce your copyright.

Mandatory Deposit with The Library of Congress

If your book has copyright protection, there is a legal requirement that you deposit 2 copies of your published work within 3 months of publication. This is separate from copyright or ISBN matters. For details, see the web site for the Library of Congress here Copyright registration and mandatory deposit can be handled with a single submission. The Library of Congress forms are available here.